For some of my lower readers in Year 1 (reading at about PM level 7) there seems to be a major problem with sight words. These words are the glue that holds the text together, but unsurprisingly these readers have limited knowledge. On this page I'm collecting ideas for learning sight words. Of course the very best way is to read an engaging text with an adult, and practice these words a lot. Since I can't be with them every day during guided reading, this list is about activities they can do independently.
Fundamental to this list is the idea that activities should be fun, and involve some word study, preferably in context if possible. For instance, although I'm not totally averse to playing memory or bingo with sight words, I think this will not be as effective, as it is quite possible to match words without being able to say or recognise them.
It's worth keeping in mind that "sight words" are intended to be words that are difficult or impossible to sound out, and "high frequency words" are not quite the same thing - many HFW can be sounded out. In fact, people with strong knowledge of word patterns and etymology can sound out many of the HFW, so strictly speaking these aren't all "sight words", even though we may mix the terms up from time to time. A good example of a high frequency word that can obviously be sounded out is "be". And one that probably can't is "once". If you want to read more about this, I found this sight words phonics page to be interesting.
There are a number of lists of sight words - many of the people I've worked with are familiar with the Magic 100 Words. Unfortunately these lists are all subject to copyright, so I won't be putting up anything that might directly infringe copyright. Still, I don't think M100W can copyright the word "about", or other sight words, so activities using those words lists are OK if they're not M100W materials.
The Dolch word list is interesting because it doesn't seem to be copyrighted and there are many Dolch word activities around on the net.
Fundamental to this list is the idea that activities should be fun, and involve some word study, preferably in context if possible. For instance, although I'm not totally averse to playing memory or bingo with sight words, I think this will not be as effective, as it is quite possible to match words without being able to say or recognise them.
It's worth keeping in mind that "sight words" are intended to be words that are difficult or impossible to sound out, and "high frequency words" are not quite the same thing - many HFW can be sounded out. In fact, people with strong knowledge of word patterns and etymology can sound out many of the HFW, so strictly speaking these aren't all "sight words", even though we may mix the terms up from time to time. A good example of a high frequency word that can obviously be sounded out is "be". And one that probably can't is "once". If you want to read more about this, I found this sight words phonics page to be interesting.
There are a number of lists of sight words - many of the people I've worked with are familiar with the Magic 100 Words. Unfortunately these lists are all subject to copyright, so I won't be putting up anything that might directly infringe copyright. Still, I don't think M100W can copyright the word "about", or other sight words, so activities using those words lists are OK if they're not M100W materials.
The Dolch word list is interesting because it doesn't seem to be copyrighted and there are many Dolch word activities around on the net.
I like the Dolch word cloze activities at k12reader.com. The Dolch word shapes activities are quite good too. These are all on the Dolch Word List page.
There is a great "Dolch kit" at theschoolbell.com that has many activities, games and resources.
Kelly's Kindergarten has a page full of games to make, many of which can be used for teaching sight words or letters and sounds.
Here is a list of sight word games on the web: